Forensic analysis of the Shroud of Turin suggests it’s a big fake

The mythical cloth is said to be the fabric that covered the body of Jesus after his crucifixion, apparently stained with his blood.

But new research is casting a yuuuge shadow of doubt over the famed bit of fabric, with scientists Matteo Borrini and Luigi Garlaschelli carrying out a forensic-style investigation into the blood patterns.

Their study, which was published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences earlier this month, attempted to replicate the stains.

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The Shroud of Turin at the Duomo di Milano, Italy.

It was their goal to try to figure out what position would have caused the stains, using a “living volunteer”.

What they found was pretty confusing because the stains appearing on the back of the left hand on the shroud would only be possible if the victim – supposedly Jesus – was standing with his arms at a 45-degree angle.

But for the stains of the forearm to be accurate, the victim would need to have been standing with their arms pretty much straight up in the air.

“The blood pattern analysis of blood visible on the frontal side of the chest (the lance wound) shows that the Shroud represents the bleeding in a realistic manner for a standing position while the stains at the back—of a supposed post-mortem bleeding from the same wound for a supine corpse—are totally unrealistic,” they wrote.

They also tested what kind of blood pattern would be created from nail wounds pressed on to a wooden surface, but the results were “unclear”.

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A black-and-white negative of the Shroud of Turin appears to show a bearded male figure.

Of course, the idea that a cloth which apparently wrapped the body of Christ being a big old fake isn’t new.

Researchers from Oxford University said the shroud was dated from 1260 – 1390 AD, based on results from radiocarbon measurements.

The study, which was published in Nature back in 1989, required experts to cut “very small samples” from the shroud, which was done under the watchful eye of Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero and his scientific advisor in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Tuin, Italy.

The carbon dating was carried out in three different labs – one at Oxford, another at The University of Arizona and the third at Institut für Mittelenergiephysik in Switzerland.

“These results therefore provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin is mediaeval,” researchers wrote.

But more recent tests have cast doubt on the Oxford study, with a 2013 report from Nick Squires for The Daily Telegraph featuring a claim from University of Padua thermal measurement expert Giulio Fanti that the sample had been contaminated.

His later study dated the cloth from between 300 BC and 400AD, which would have fit the timeline.